The report is providing customers with important information about tissue products and toilet paper using 3 criteria: usage of 100% recycled paper, at least 50% post consumer recycled paper and bleached without toxic chlorine compounds.

Each category includes ranking of brands, where products that meet 3 criteria are recommended, products that meet 2 criteria are defined as “can do better” and products that meet only one or no criteria at all are “to be avoided”.

Let’s focus for a minute on toilet paper, the most popular product among the ones reviewed in this report. The brand in the first place is Green Forest, which uses 100 percent recycled and 90 percent post-consumer content, as well as chlorine-free manufacturing processes. Other brands that are also recommended are: 365, Natural Value and Seventh Generation.

And who’s to be avoided? Well, when it comes to toilet paper you will find there few familiar names: Scott, Target, Wal-Mart, Kleenex Cottonelle, Chramin, Quilted Northern and Angel Soft. According to the report they all use zero recycled paper (and of course zero post consumer content) and are bleached with chlorine compounds [just take into consideration the follwoing comment from Greenpeace: In the few cases where companies did not respond to our request for verification of recycled content percentages and whitening processes used, we assumed 0% overall recycled, 0% post-consumer recycled and ECF bleaching.]

The report is followed by a very interesting article in the New York Times (“Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests” by Leslie Kaufman), where I learned the astonishing fact that “tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than 2 percent of sales for at-home use among conventional and premium brands.”

Why? Well, according the article the main reason that toilet paper made of recycled paper is not as soft as toilet paper that is made of trees. Actually the article explains “it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely on them.”

In other places around the globe the situation is in some way better and in Europe and Latin America, products with recycled content make up about on average 20 percent of the at-home market.

The price for the American’s love for softness is very high – the article brings another devastating fact:

25 percent to 50 percent of the pulp used to make toilet paper in this country comes from tree farms in South America and the United States. The rest, environmental groups say, comes mostly from old, second-growth forests that serve as important absorbers of carbon dioxide…In addition, some of the pulp comes from the last virgin North American forests, which are an irreplaceable habitat for a variety of endangered species, environmental groups say.

And it doesn’t end with trees – there are the water and energy required in the process of turning a tree into rolls of toilet paper, and there’s also the polluting chlorine-based bleach process used to achieve greater whiteness.

Who’s to blame? well, Kimberly-Clark, which says it’s the American consumer who “like the softness and strength that virgin fibres provides”. I wounder if these consumers would make the same choice if they knew that for example 14 percent of the wood pulp used by Kimberly-Clark came from the Boreal forest in Canada.

The answer unfortunately is that in this case we cannot count on the consumer nor on the companies who make huge profits out of these soft papers (An article in the Guardian states that “paper manufacturers such as Kimberly-Clark have identified luxury brands such as three-ply tissues or tissues infused with hand lotion as the fastest-growing market share in a highly competitive industry.”).

Even if consumers in the U.S. will become more aware of their toilet paper’s footprint and choose to buy more recycled paper, my guestimation is that recycled paper usage will be no higher than in Europe (20%). And that’s the optimistic scenario.

So what’s the solution? In one word: regulation. We need global and local regulation that will ban first and foremost the use of ancient forests for manufacturing tissue products. We also need regulation that will put a price tag on the environmental damages made here, so when you buy toilet paper, you will pay their real price and not a price that ignores the environmental costs. Only this way a real change can be achieved. It’s the same with plastic bags and with many other bad habits we have. Voluntary steps just don’t do enough or do too little and we can’t afford too many years of this softness obsession to keep going on. We just can’t.

I’ll be happy to hear more ideas and thoughts how to end American’s obsession to soft toilet paper. Please add your comment!

About the Author

Would it be possible for Greenpeace to prepare the same guide for the other contries/ regions as well. Because except Kleenex, in many countries you will not find the other trademarks included in the guide, or may be they are with other names. I currently live in the UK and I know that, for example, Co-op has %100 recycled toilet paper and tissues but at the same time it has not recycled or partially recycled one.
On the other hand, I think it is also useful to know the ecologically clean domestic chemicals so that we can protect the water and soil from pollution. Thank you very much!

Chandler Marcille

I don’t like that you are bashing Scott, because the toilet paper we use at work is Scott (Kimberly-Clark) and it uses 100% Recycled paper with 75% post consumer recycled paper. You should do further research and provide a proper list.

Alexis

I’ve been a recycled paper products consumer for about three years now, and there’s no way I’d go back. I love Green Forest, and Seventh Generation – depending on which store I’m able to stop at. I really hope more consumers make the decision to switch. Perhaps if they were offered in more stores especially the Sam’s Club and BJ’s of the world.

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